Awami League lawmaker Suranjit Sengupta has asked the government to disclose the names of Bangladeshi nationals who have deposited money with banks in Switzerland.
“The government has to take the initiative to publish the list, bring back the money from Swiss banks and take action against money laundering,” Suranjit, a member of the ruling party’s Advisory Council, said while addressing a rally in the capital yesterday.
The rally was organised by Nouka Samarthak Goshti, a group of supporters of Awami League’s “boat” symbol, at the Diploma Engineers’ Institution in the capital.
In response to BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakrul Islam Alamgir’s recent statement demanding a neutral, international-level investigation committee for exposing the Bangladeshi depositors with Swiss banks, the former minister said it was the government’s duty to bring back the money, and BNP did not need to worry about the matter.
“The UNDP has not disclosed the holders of the money. So, why is the BNP so upset about the matter?” Suranjit said, adding that the previous AL government was able to repatriate money laundered by Arafat Ranman Koko, the younger son of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia.
A study by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), published last week, said Bangladesh lost over $800m a year on average in capital flight through trade mis-invoicing, unreported remittances and balance of payment leakages. The total capital flight accounted for 30.4% of the country’s GDP of $100bn in 2010.
On Thursday, Switzerland’s central bank disclosed that deposits by Bangladeshi citizens at different Swiss banks rose by 62% last year. Swiss National Bank data show that the deposits stood at Tk3,236 crore at the end of 2013, up from Tk1,991 crore in 2012.
On a different topic, the senior AL leader said bad relations between politicians and the media were not acceptable all. “The relation between politicians and the media is supplementary to each other. Politicians keep ties with people through the media,” Suranjit said, referring to party lawmaker Shamin Osman’s recent derogatory remarks against journalists.
“Politicians should talk to the media in logical language, and not express their arrogance. There should be an end to the bad relationship between politicians and journalists.”